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Updated: May 3, 2025
The Su-chen was now, he considered, quite close enough to both fort and junks; he therefore rang for half-speed, at which the vessel just held her own against the current, the junks themselves having anchored in order to avoid being swept down under the Su-chen's guns. So the battle went grimly forward.
Frobisher's first action when he got to the magazine was to examine the outside of the brass cases, and he soon saw or thought he saw what was the matter. When the Su-chen's ammunition had been overhauled at Tien-tsin, cartridge for the four-inch was one of the sizes of which there was a shortage, and Frobisher had had a fresh supply put on board.
The two men standing on the Su-chen's deck had escaped as by a miracle, for, after taking all her cargo out of the junk and throwing dead and wounded overboard, the leader of the pirates had indulged his humour by binding the two survivors and laying them on the deck, afterwards firing the junk and setting her adrift.
With the exception of the hole in the tower, and a few splintered and starred "splashings" where the missiles had struck, very little actual injury seemed to have been inflicted, notwithstanding the excellent practice of the Su-chen's gunners.
The junks were, like the fort, very heavily armed much more heavily than Frobisher had in the least anticipated and their accurately-aimed shot came ripping and tearing through the Su-chen's wooden bulwarks and sides with terrible effect. In addition to solid shot the pirates were using shell, and the air was soon full of flying pieces of metal, which struck men down in every direction.
Running back to the casemate, he snatched a handful of powder, spread it thinly on deck, well away from the load, and placed a lighted match to it. There was no flame or puff of smoke, no explosion nothing! The match simply burnt up and went out. Then the Su-chen's captain took a pinch of the stuff between his fingers and put it in his mouth, tasting it.
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